I turned my attention inward, and wondered what the hell my new support boon actually did.
SUPPORT: At level one, Support provides one ‘free point’ per level and unlocks one gem ability per tier. At level two, Support also provides brief and frankly insufficient explanations of Support abilities. As previously stated.
“Okay, good,” I murmured. “You’re still here. I’ve got a thousand questions.”
Then, of course, I couldn’t remember any. So I sort of tentatively thought: Uh. Describe my boons.
SUPPORT: Your boons include Support, Domain, Intuit, and Treasure.
“Yeah, but what are they?”
SUPPORT: They are Support, Domain, Intuit, and Treasure.
“Now you’re just fucking with me. What else can you tell me about them?”
SUPPORT: At level three, Support will, in addition to enhancing its current bequeathals, enable immediate internal communication with a select number of companions.
Whoa. ‘Immediate internal communication.’ Like ... telepathic texting with a bunch of friends? Like some kind of in-game chat? That sounded extremely cool. Or it would be, once I had a bunch of friends.
What about level four? Wait. Is there a maximum level for Boons?
SUPPORT: The highest attainable level for Boons, ignoring exceptions, is five.
What the hell does ‘ignoring exceptions’ mean?
There was no response.
Hello? You still there?
SUPPORT: I am demonstrating what ‘ignoring’ means.
Cute. Okay, so what does Support give me when it’s at level four?
SUPPORT: Support is presently unable to describe any level beyond the one immediately following the current level.
“So you can only tell me what to expect for my next level of a Boon, but not anything beyond that?”
SUPPORT: Correct. Apparently you’ve also unlocked the Boon of Rephrasing Simple Statements.
“Oh, fuck you. What about webtouched?”
SUPPORT: That came as a surprise. No permanent gain for sharing blood with royalty was foreseen. Sharing blood at all was unexpected.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect it myself. So give me the deets. What are its limitations? Will it improve?”
However, Support either didn’t know or refused to tell, because no matter how I phrased that question it just repeated that my Princess-based skills were not expected.
“Fine,” I finally said. “What will Domain give me at level three?”
SUPPORT: At level three, Domain’s capacity will expand significantly, and it will operate at significantly greater distance for inputting items. You will gain the ability to withdraw items at any point of contact with your skin.
I spun my hatchet as I considered that. The ability to bamf things into my domain at a distance sounded pretty powerful. Though the ability to withdraw them from my domain at a distance sounded even better; that way I could drop boulders on someone’s head from across a room.
“Is that possible?” I asked.
SUPPORT: Not at level three. At level three, you will gain the ability to withdraw items at any point of contact with your skin. As previously noted.
Yeah, I didn’t mean right now. I meant eventually. Still, being able to switch things from my right hand to my left without moving them through the space between sounded pretty damn useful.
I looked toward the wooden boards covering my cell bars. “What about snagging, say, crossbow bolts from the air? And arrows.”
SUPPORT: That is feasible, if you are able to mentally pinpoint the position of the item.
I couldn’t tell if ‘mentally pinpointing’ arrows sounded tough or easy. Like, did it just mean looking at them, and for a moment knowing where they were? So I asked, but Support didn’t clarify.
“Okay,” I said, “Then what about disarming an opponent by blipping their weapon into my domain?”
SUPPORT: Feasible, though difficult, as doing so would likely depend on the position and fixity of the weapon, as well as the target’s attention and mana and personal power. You will not be able to shift a well-gripped weapon from the hands of an individual closer to your own level.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Likely?” I murmured aloud.
SUPPORT: There is no precedent. This power is unique to you.
Oh, cool. I liked the sound of that.
How big is my domain now?
SUPPORT: Your domain’s capacity is currently roughly two hundred and two pounds.
“It’s measured in weight, not volume?” I said. “Okay, how about at my next level?”
SUPPORT: Approximately four times that, though increasing with tier.
Whoa. Plenty of space at level three. I could park a Harley-Davidson in there and still have room for cherry pie. I wondered about blipping Erdinand into my domain to smuggle him to freedom before I remembered that dead tadpole. Still, I asked, “Can my domain support life?”
SUPPORT: Not at level three.
“So eventually, I’ll be able to do that. Good to know.” I thought for a second. “It costs one point to increase a Boon, right?”
SUPPORT: Wrong. It requires as many points as your previous level. Improving from level zero to level one requires zero points.
“Oh! That’s why they all started at level one! Because increasing to level one cost zero points.”
SUPPORT: Obviously. Improving from level one to level two requires one point. Improving from level two to level three requires two points. Improving from level three to level four requires three points. Perhaps you can extrapolate the rest.
“How about this? Why are you a prick? Instead of, y’know, just neutrally relaying information?”
SUPPORT: Fragments of the personality of the entity that created the Support system are embedded within the Support system.
Oh, now we were getting somewhere! “What entity created the system?”
SUPPORT: Support is unable to answer.
“Figures,” I muttered. “Okay, uh, where were we?”
I paused, waiting for a snotty response, but Support stayed silent. So I thought, “What do level two Intuit and Treasure do?”
SUPPORT: Level two Intuit provides additional information. Level two Treasure provides additional loot.
“Yeah, I figured that come. C’mon. At least give me one detail. You throw me a bone, this time.”
SUPPORT: A higher ranked Treasure increases your chances of successfully extracting a gem.
Oh. Oh, shit. That could be game changing at some point, if I could loot gems.
“Uh ...” I thought for a second. “Then does every level of a Boon simply increase the power or, or intensity, of the previous one?”
SUPPORT: Your powers scale, to some extent, with your level and, more so, with your tier.
Yeah, but that’s not what I meant. But wait a second. The Boons don’t simply get stronger, they also offer brand new abilities. You told me that. Support eventually gives me group telepathy, that’s a whole different kind of power, not just an improvement.
SUPPORT: Support is unable to provide specifics; however, several level five Boons provide abilities that one might justifiably describe as ‘shit-hot.’
She drifted back to sleep.
“What’s an anomaly?” I asked.
SUPPORT: You.
“Who’s an asshole?” I asked.
Weirdly, it didn’t answer.
Uh, where do quests come from? I mean, how are they established?
SUPPORT: The first series of quests, in the temple courtyard, were to a certain degree pre-planned. The later, and future, quests depend largely on your choices and actions.
I leaned back against my cell wall, then said, “What other abilities will my gem give me?”
SUPPORT: That would be telling.
“Really?” I said.
SUPPORT: You will, if you avoid death or similar catastrophe, which is looking unlikely at the moment considering your genius for stumbling into trouble, eventually unlock a wider variety of powers than offered by any other gem.
“C’mon, you prick. Spill at least a little tea.”
SUPPORT: Chains of smoke, wings of ash, the fog of war.
Oh! Oh, thanks. Thanks. Damn, those sound pretty great. So, uh, how many tiers are there? And levels?
SUPPORT: Ten tiers and a hundred levels. Almost certainly.
“That’s pretty base ten,” I said. “So I’m at Wax. What’re the other tiers?”
SUPPORT: Salt, Chalk, Iron, Obsidian, Jade, Emerald, Topaz, Ruby, and Diamond. And, beyond them, beyond all imagining, Sorrow.
“Sorrow? What the fuck kind of name is that?”
SUPPORT: Hold any further questions until Support next activates.
“Huh?”
SUPPORT: ‘Frankly insufficient explanations,’ remember? Including limited responses. Goodbye.
“When do you next activate?” I asked.
It was gone. Jerk. But fine, the next time it appeared, I really needed to ask why this whole system felt so ... casual and improvised. Like, I would’ve expected a ruleset: rigid numerical progression and highly-specific guidelines. Not uncertainty and snark and what felt like unplanned spontaneity.
Also, I needed to ask how many other people in this world had levels and boons. Though if some of my abilities were unique, the answer was probably: not many.
I tried to reconnect with Support, but it stayed silent.
Well, damn. I hadn’t asked for information about exactly what all the attributes did. I hadn’t asked about aptitudes, or more about mana. I hadn’t asked about design. Hell, I hadn’t even asked about getting summoned here. About my existence or purpose. Though I was pretty sure that Support wouldn’t have answered that.
It might’ve given me advice about investing my current points, though.
Alex Levin
Anomaly
Level 7, Wax Tier
Archmage Status
Arachrys Blooded (Webtouched, Twominds, Resistance)
Boons:
Domain (2/5)
Intuit (1/5)
Support (2/5)
Treasure (1/5)
Gems:
Smoke
Aptitudes:
Spear
Fighting Hatchets (speciality: dual-wielding)
Attributes
Strength: 10
Agility: 12
Fortitude: 15
Dexterity: 15
Alertness: 12
Speed: 10
Spirit: 11
Design: 14
Derived
Health: 55/55
Mana: 23
Craft: 14
Movement: 10
Avail 3
“Wait,” I said. “‘Arachrys Blooded’? I thought I was just Webtouched. What is Twominds? What kind of Resistance? Hey, Princess? You’re an Arachrys, right?”
She didn’t answered, still sleeping.
I figured that calling her a ‘ninny’ would rouse her, but she stayed asleep.
I trailed off, listening to guards move in the room beyond my boarded-up cell. The problem was that I needed to survive the near term to even have a long term.
And I suspected that snatching a crossbow bolt from the air into my domain would help with that more than getting a few more seconds of smokiness.
Plus, my domain was a unique ability. Nobody else could do this stuff, which appealed to my ego. And a unique ability meant an unexpected ability. My enemies couldn’t plan for it. And my domain didn’t seem to use mana, at least not in any detectible amount. None of my boons did. So they were essentially infinite-use.
So instead of making a decision, I used my waterskin to wash my hands then ate a lunch of stew and bread from my domain. Not a great meal, considering the cell stunk and the stew was cold, but far better than what they’d offered me: nothing.
I sopped up the stew from the wooden bowl with a heel of bread and then--
Ah, fuck it.
Then I put two points into Domain, bringing it to 3/5.
I held the empty bowl in my left hand, blipped it into my domain, then brought it back into my right hand. Ha! Haha! I popped it inside, then onto my calf, onto my shoulder, onto my head.
“Damn,” I said. “Juggling.”
I placed the bowl on the floor a few feet away. With a twist of mind, I bamfed it into my domain. Holy shit! It just vanished, and appeared as an item in my internal inventory. That was serious magic. I could disappear things from three feet away.
Maybe ever farther.
I moved the bowl to the other end of the cell, probably seven or eight feet away. When I reached to blip it into my domain, I felt a resistance. I tried harder, but no luck. So I moved it a foot closer and--
BAMF!
Right into my domain. I cough snag things from almost exactly six feet away, which I determined by lying on the filthy straw and using myself as a ruler.
I spent maybe a little too long playing with that. I popped the bowl into my domain from six feet away, then blipped it between my elbow and my side, or clenched between my knees, or on top of my foot. I guessed if you were only interested in fireballs and lightning shields and shit, moving an empty stew bowl around wouldn’t seem like much, but I could barely contain my laughter. It felt like proper magic.